Various types of fasteners for attaching articles together by adhesive and/or mechanical interaction are described in the art. Exemplary of fasteners that use adhesives as part of the active closure surface are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,622 to Toussant et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,242 to Grube et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,816 to Leseman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,635 to Carpenter et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,959,265 to Wood et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,557 to Noreen et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,276 to Battrell et al. Mechanical fasteners take on a variety of forms. One exemplary type includes fasteners having a single protrusion-receptor pair. This type of fastener is illustrated by the common metal snap. Examples of molded or extruded plastic fasteners which utilize protrusion-receptor pairs can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,144,755 to Freedman; U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,184 to Ausnit; U.S. Pat. No. 3,182,345 to Smith; U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,774 to Reed; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,819,309 to Behymer. The Behymer patent indicates that the two parts of the fastener can be identical thereby creating what is referred to herein as a self mating fastener.
Contrasted with mechanical fasteners that have ore or two engaging elements are fasteners that have a multiplicity of such elements. One grouping of such fasteners includes the hook-and-hook fastener described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,437 to Mestral, the hook-and-loop further described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,009,235 to Mestral, and the headed stem or mushroom-and-loop further described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,815 to Scripps.
Another grouping of fasteners using a multiplicity of engaging elements are those that predominantly have solid protrusions including of a stem and an expanded region or head at the stem tip. The expanded region or head can have a wide variety of shapes. Normally these fasteners are self mating wherein the head portion is larger in diameter or cross section than is the space between heads. Exemplary patents describing this type of fasteners include, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,499,898 to Anderson; U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,589 to Pearson; U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,113 to Flanagan, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,705 to Kayser et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,570 to Gershenson.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,899,805 to McMillan teaches the use of headed hollow protrusions. This type of fastener includes an expanded region filting into a seat above which is a reduced cross section or restricted pocket and/or by flexing of the stem. Joining of this type of fastener is normally associated with a single or double snap as the fastener is seated.
Another type of fastener having a multiplicity of intermeshing solid protrusions is described by U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,259 to Appeldorn. In this type of fastener, the tips of the protrusions are not expanded or headed. The bond is created by the frictional forces generated between contacting surfaces of the intermeshing protrusions where the surfaces are optically smooth flats. Examples of fasteners in this third grouping can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,363 to Reylek et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,164 to Wilson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,555 to Wilson et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,101 to Rouser et al. A fastener based on projections that perforate the web and alternate in rows from one side of the web to the other is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,581,792 to Spier. This fastener functions by engaging the projections in the receptacles to form a releasable friction fit.